Stadium-Sized Ambition (From "On The Job" with Avery Thompson)

For the 8th season of "On The Job," host Avery Thompson shares stories of folks making pivots in their professional - and personal - lives. Whether it's a successful athlete transitioning into a new career off the field, a fly fishing tour guide trying to introduce a new segment of folks to the joys of the outdoors, or a stadium beer and hot dog hawker who doubles as the CEO of a red-hot start-up, we'll find out what drives them, how they've managed their pivots and what lies ahead. Strap in for eight more entertaining and heartfelt stories of people finding their life's work. "On The Job" is brought to you by Express Employment Professions.

On today's episode: For seasoned beer and hot-dog hawker Jonah Fialkow, perfecting his game-day salesmanship has helped pave the way to launching a rapidly growing reality TV-centric start-up.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to on the Job. We're going up to the
Windy City to speak with Jonah Fialca, who somehow manages
to be both the CEO of a startup and a
successful and increasingly famous hawker of food and drinks at
Wrigley Field. Each game day, a few hours before the
Chicago Cubs trot onto the baseball diamond, Jonah Fialco starts

(00:25):
getting ready for work because it's on his way there
exposed to the elements that Jonah decides what he's going
to sell that day.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, exactly, it's like while I'm walking over, and then
once I get into the room and see how many
vendors are there that day, and then when I get
to the table and see how many other vendors have
signed up for the same products in that section. But
it generally will happen on my walkover, and I do
live in Rigbyville, so it's like a ten minute walkton stadium,
and then it's off into the stadium to get selling
right after the pick.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Jonah is a food and beverage vendor at Wrigley Field,
one of those that goes up and down the aisles oras.
He describes a job.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I think the official term is hawker seat vendor is
another way to describe it, but generally I say, I
carry beer and hot dogs around the stadium and yell
very loudly and make a fool out of myself. That
comes jeems.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
And since I know you're curious to hear what that
sounds like, let's just get it out of the way. Actually,
hang on, let me find some free baseball sounds to
set the stage. Okay, here we go.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
But for hot dogs, it's something along the lines of
eat dogs, eat dogs. For beer, it'll be something like,
Hey beer man, by b light, who's ready beer? Hey
I skoll beer man.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
If you can't already hear the passion and dedication Jonah
has for hawking in his voice. You could also take
a look at his social media presence because he's become
quite popular on numerous platforms for giving people an inside
look into the world of professional hot dog vendor.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah. I've been making videos about my job at Wrigley
for just over a year now. I came into last
season with the idea of highlighting some of my fellow
vendors and kind of providing a day in the life
of what a vendor does and a job that I'm
so passionate about. It's been really fun to share that
on social media and people have been really receptive of it.

(02:29):
It's a unique job and everyone knows what a vendor is,
but it's been fun to provide a behind the scenes
look and there's just so much history behind it, and
creating content around my job and around the Cubs and
Wrigley Field has been that. It made last season the
most fun year vending, and I'm looking forward to what
twenty twenty four has in store from a content perspective

(02:49):
as well.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Along with being a veteran hot dog vendor at Wrigley
Field for the past decade, Jonah Fialco has for the
last two years added ceoh to his list of job titles.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm a big pajama worker unless I have important meetings.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
And what's the business that the sweatpants wearing CEO is running.
It's called Bracketology and it's I'll just let Jonah explain it.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
We provide fantasy football style games and your college basketball
bracket style games, but for reality television shows. So we
do four different game types that we offer across ten
different reality television shows.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Now, Jonah credits his vending career with helping him develop
into the businessman he's become.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
For sure, it has. I think there are so many
transferable skills that I've learned vending at Wrigley over the
past decade that have translated to running my own company.
I have no fear of rejection, no fear of making
a fool out of myself than asking people for things.
There have been so many things that have been helpful

(04:01):
from a professional standpoint that I've gotten from my job
at Wrigley that I use on a day to day
basis as a CEO.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Bracketology CEO says he has no intention of quitting his
hot dog vending gig anytime soon.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Like I said, I really think that as long as
I am living in Chicago and physically able, I will
do this as long as I can.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
From the job I'm Avery Thompson. Looking for a job
is lonely, endless, searching phone calls that go nowhere, applications
that vanish into thin air. What if you could link
with dozens of local companies who are hiring right now
with just one connection.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
That's Express Employment Professionals find us at expresspros dot com.
One connection, endless opportunities and no fees ever for job seekers,
Express employment professionals, expresspros, dot com